Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgent group has threatened to attack some local and foreign media establishments and journalists.
This is
contained in a new video released on Wednesday.
The
media organisations that are not in the good books of Boko Haram include,
Punch, Daily Sun, Vanguard, Guardian, Nation, Tribune, and National Accord,
Radio France International, Voice of America.
The
reason for their planned attack according to the clip include, misinforming the
public about their operation, lies, dishonouring their prophet, ‘Mohammad’,
among others.
Here's a full
transcription of the video:
“This
is a message from the public awareness department of the Jamatu Ahlis sunnah
lil daawati wal jihad, a group engaged in jihad in Nigeria.
“We
wish to explain about the attack we carried out on Thisday Newspapers. Some of
the reasons why we decided to attack some Media Houses, especially Thisday,
were because the paper was used in dishonouring our prophet, Mohammad (SAW)
during a beauty pageant in Kaduna in November 2002.
“At
that time, some people who called themselves leaders of Muslims came out to say
they have forgiven those who committed the offence.
“But
based on our knowledge, we know that no one has the power to forgive anyone for
an offence that God himself has given judgement, especially on an offence that
has to do with dishonouring Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
“No one
has the power to forgive this type of offence, and the judgement is for such
persons to be killed.
“This
lady that committed this crime, the judgement on her is to be killed at any
opportunity; and the media house is also supposed to be driven out of existence
whenever there is a chance to do so.
“We are
just getting the opportunity to attack the media house, and we are hoping to
continue these attacks until we drive them out of existence.
“It is
our hope that Allah (SWT) will help his religion.
“We
know that any genuine Muslim must have been deeply touched by the Thisday
incident.
“Thisday
newspaper is also leading in helping the government in fighting us, alongside
other media houses that we will mention soon.
“Some
of the offences of Thisday and other media outlets include: firstly, during the
botched attempt to rescue some kidnapped foreign nationals in Sokoto; these
media houses asked us if we have anything to do with the kidnap and we said we
have nothing to do with it, yet these media houses reported that we were
responsible for the incident, that was a lie against us.
“Secondly,
when we sent a video of our leader, Abubakar Shekau, the media houses reported
things that our leader did not say, such as that in response to the president’s
threat to finish us in three months, we have also threatened to finish the
government in three months. But the truth is, nowhere in the video did our
leader said what they attributed to him.
“Thirdly,
on the purported arrest of Abu Qaqa by the SSS, we have come out to tell them
that the person arrested was not Abu Qaqa,yet the media continue to potray us
as liars, and even said that our leader had ordered for Abu Qaqa II to be
executed, and we are now searching for Abu Qaqa III.
“Recently
too, they came out with another lie that one Mohammed Awwal Kontagora was the
Abu Qaqa II that was executed, and that even his parents confirmed it, that was
just a big lie to convince the world.
“The
media also said that we have killed the father of Abu Darda, so as to pass a
message to him, because he had leaked our secrets after his arrest by security
agencies, and they wanted him to know that he is one of our targets.
“These
are all lies, and they are many.
“These
media houses have committed a lot of offences that is detrimental to Islam, and
we don’t have the power to forgive them. We will take revenge on them by God’s
grace, some of these media houses have been categorized into three groups.
“The
first group is the likes of Thisday whose offences are big.
“The
second group we will also attack soon are Punch, Daily Sun, Vanguard, Guardian,
Nation, Tribune, and National Accord, which are all newspaper houses.
“There
is also VOA Hausa radio. All these media houses we will attack them including
their staff and offices, by God’s grace.
“VOA
Hausa for instance have recently started campaigning for people to support the
government against us by exposing us.
“The
next group that are on the verge of joining this list who if they are not
careful we will attack very soon include, Leadership, Daily Trust, People’s
Daily and RFI (Radio France international)
“There
is an online medium known as Saharareporters who have their office in New York,
and who have made their site as a platform for attack against Islam. So we are
warning them to stop making their site an avenue for attacking Islam, otherwise
we will find a way of attacking them too.
“We
resorted to using this medium to send our message instead of the normal
tele-conference because of the fear by journalists; which made them refuse to
conduct the conference.
“We are
grateful to God for the success recorded on the attack on Thisday, and we hope
to continue such attacks.
“Finally,
the government has now resorted to arresting our wives and children and also
demolishing our houses, like they did in Biu recently, that is why we have also
resolved to start attacking government schools, especially, tertiary ones.
“We
promise to demolish 500 buildings for any one of our houses that the government
destroys.
“We
have already started with Gombe and Kano.”
